


kinder ghosts

by Illusively (Hermia)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-14
Updated: 2012-09-14
Packaged: 2017-11-14 04:48:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/511486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hermia/pseuds/Illusively
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek opens up to Allison about his family -- and realizes they would have liked her just as much as he does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	kinder ghosts

Allison's arms were covered with flecks of red paint.

The thin splattered lines were nothing compared to the splotches on her jeans and the old sweater Erica let her borrow, but she busied herself with peeling them off all the same. Peeling, wetting, scrubbing the pads of her fingers against her skin – each method was equally useless against the paint, though that didn't keep her from trying.

Derek sat across from her with his back to the newly installed window, his eyes hooded and lips pressed together, blocking out everything but the warm panes of glass and the even beat of Allison's heart.

They didn't speak much, so it was no trouble at all for him to delve deeper, to concentrate on the more minute details. Like how calm she was while she was painting and the sudden rush of blood in her veins when she thought she messed up. 

He watched her nose wrinkle and her eyes dart around the freshly painted room until they found him, the corner of her mouth twitching upwards just enough to create the shadow of a dimple in her cheek. 

Over the past year and a half, getting to know Allison was a slippery slope filled with all sorts of mortal dangers. Some of which he crashed right into; some of which threatened a relationship that was barely there until the beginning of her junior year, when she sought him out for answers. He surprised himself by giving them to her freely, out of guilt and sympathy and the hindsight that showed him they stood on more even ground now even more than before.

And now they were painting Erica's bedroom in the newly renovated Hale house and she was starting her senior year and he was studying to get his GED. Everything was settled. The Alpha pack was water under the bridge. Chris Argent called off another group of hunters. They'd even picked up the pieces. The pack was beyond that now. They were moving on.

“I have a question.” Derek nodded. “Whose room was this? If you don't mind telling me, I mean.”

“It was a guest room,” he replied without much hesitation. Every house this large had a guest room or two. There was no family member attached to that space. Except maybe one. “My cousin Josh was staying in here with his little brother before the fire.”

Allison pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and stood up from the step stool she'd been sitting on. The heels of her boots made a solid _thump_ with each step as she moved around the room. “What was he like?”

“He was my main competition,” Derek said, leaning his head back until it was pressed against the glass. “Why are you—?” When Allison glanced at him again, he swallowed hard to ease the tightness in his throat. There was nothing there. No pressure. No expectations. She was just curious. She wanted to know more about the house and about him and his family. Of course she did. “We were going to compete for bragging rights. The hunter's moon is a big deal, and it was the first time I'd really be judged by my family. To see how strong I was.”

When he continued, there was a small smile on his face, though the smile itself belonged to the past, not the current conversation. “He was a jerk. Arrogant, but incredibly strong. If I wasn't fast, he would've destroyed me. I didn't hate him for it, but Laura liked him a _lot_ more than I did.”

There was an amused edge in his voice that made Allison chuckle to herself. She never heard this side of Derek. She wagered not many people did, if any. 

“What about his little brother?”

“Nathan,” Derek said slowly as his eyes opened, her question pulling him back into the half-finished, unfurnished house and away from his home and away from 2005. For the first time in almost eight years, he didn't mind. He hadn't in weeks, not since they began rebuilding. “He was four.”

He watched Allison's expression. The shift between a soft smile and a frown was seamless, but he preferred it the way it was before.

“He said he wanted to be more like me. He wanted to be fast, not slow like his brother. Though I think that was more about Josh holding him upside down by his ankles than an actual desire to learn. He would have liked you.”

That seemed to surprise Allison. She stopped walking around and turned towards him. The smile was back and wider than before, even though he could tell she was unsure. Was it a compliment? Was it something else? 

“He was Laura's little shadow.” At that, Allison relaxed. Whatever unsure tic teased at her lips before melted away. “He followed her around all the time, asking her to show him the preserve.” Nathan was the reason they'd started meeting at the Beaconburger after school. Dodging a four year old was easy with a car, and even easier with an excuse to get out of the house. “You probably would've shown him around.”

“Probably,” Allison said with a quiet laugh. She sat back down on the stool, her feet planted on the first step, and she rested her chin on her hands. “I really love it out here. If I didn't have somewhere to stay, I'd have to steal your couch.”

Derek chuckled. 

“I slept here after the fire and in an abandoned station. I think, 'home is where you make it,' should be written under the Hale family crest.”

They were quiet after that; Derek's off-hand comment left him looking even more pensive than usual, the shadow of a smile fading away just as easily as the conversation. The entire house was silent. Erica and Boyd and Isaac were gone, deserting their jobs to get away from the conversation they knew they shouldn't hear and leaving the house half-full. But soon enough, Allison was breaking the silence again. She hated just sitting there with Derek. There was too much left unspoken between them to keep their lips pressed into thin lines.

“Do you think Laura would have liked me?”

“My entire family would have _liked_ you.” The slow way in which Derek spoke said volumes. The honesty, the forthrightness, the way his pale green eyes searched her face to see if she accepted what he said as the truth. She did. That made things easier. “My mother would have loved you.”

Allison crossed her arms and rested them on her knees, her chin settling on her forearm and her eyes settling on Derek's.

“Laura was a lot more like our dad. My mother was the Hale; she was the Alpha. She would've appreciated how brave and totally reckless you are.” Derek began smoothing his hands up and down his thighs as a line formed between his brows. “She wasn't completely serious – there's no way she would have married my dad if she was – but she was very... stern. Solid. You'd swear my dad and Peter were the brothers instead of Peter being my mother's blood.”

“I would have liked them, too,” Allison murmured. She hadn't meant to interrupt him, but she could hardly take back what she said, so she pressed her mouth against the paint-splattered sleeve of Erica's sweater. When she spoke again, her words were muffled. “They sound amazing.”

Derek nodded at that. His family had been amazing. No amount of teenage angst before getting involved with Kate was enough to blind him to that fact. The Hale family was large, flawed, and the greatest part of his life. But now all he had was his pack, and they were the perfect substitute. Not as large and even more flawed and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would never be so proud of anyone else in his entire life.

And now he had Allison, as well. Initially, she'd been part of the pack due to a shaky alliance with the Argents. Things between her and Scott were still tense at first, but they managed. Now she was spending more time away from the main group, away from Boyd and Erica and Isaac, pulled away from the center because of a reason that wasn't entirely evident to him at first. 

Eventually he realize she still didn't feel like she deserved to be a part of the pack.

That was a feeling Derek understood. Maybe better than anyone.

Allison's hands slid down to her shins, rubbing up and down and up again, peering across the room littered with old sheets Stiles brought over and cans of paint. “We should probably start taking off the tape,” she said. Her voice was impossibly soft, as if she was afraid stepping too suddenly or too loudly might crack the moment beneath the soles of her boots. “Erica's gonna want to see her room.”

“Right.” Derek stood up from the wide window sill. He liked having that warmth at his back despite running hot himself. There was something cozy about outward warmth that the quick pump of his blood couldn't mimic. “Thank you,” he said, though if Allison hadn't been looking at him, she might have mistaken it for mistakenly spoken internal dialogue. “For helping with all of this.”

“Of course,” she murmured. “It wouldn't be a whole house without paint on the walls. And it definitely wouldn't be Erica's room without red.”

Tugging the sweater's sleeve down over her knuckles, she lifted her hand to her mouth and bit absently on the fabric. Derek bent down and gave the first strip of blue tape a tug. “We make a good team,” Allison said at his back. Her voice was louder now, and there was a smile hidden inside her words. “We got the walls finished in no time. Though... most of that was thanks to me. Who taught you how to paint anyway?”

Derek smiled to himself.

The house liked her.

He liked her.

His family definitely would have liked her.


End file.
